Dark Wings Vengance
by Sefran
Summary: The 12th fighting company of the 3rd Black Templar crusade, the Dark Wings, are on orders to defeat the tyranids on Leenus IV and continue to purge the Imperium of all abomonations
1. Forces Assemble

The Great Devourer's flyers were advancing on their position. The Gargoyles' wings were in so many numbers, they blocked out the very bleakness of the suns light. They numbered in the hundreds, hundreds of the darkly coloured Tyranid Gargoyles.  
  
The Black Templars 12th company, Dark Wing, had set up a blockade to stop the flying monstrosities. Led by Castellan Sefran, the force comprised of 2 heavy bolter emplacements, an assault cannon being carried by a mighty Terminator, accompanied by the rest of his 4 squad mates' storm bolters. There were 20 tactical men, all in a line, bolters aimed at the skies, with 2 men readying their flamers. 10 brave assault men had been ordered to skydive from a supporting Thunderhawk and disrupt the gargoyles flight. And finally, Castellan Sefran himself at the front of the tactical men. In his ancient Artificer Armour, he stood at an awesome 9'3", towering well over a foot above the rest of the squad. Armed with his master-crafted plasma-flamer combi-weapon, and his Power Halberd at his side. The mighty space marines stood, almost completely camouflaged by their jet black armour against the blackened state of the land, only their known and feared insignia being clearly seen.  
  
The Dark Wing's had to stop these Tyranid flyers before they reached the senet building and wait for re-enforcements from the Imperial Guard Desert Rats. A large part of the southern continent of Leenus IV, the bright gold desert planet of the Leenus system had been biseiged for 8 days and 1000's of Desert Rats had already been consumed by the Hive. The Dark Wings had arrived 3 hours previous and had already begun setting up permanent fortifications. High Marshal Helbrecht himself had entrusted the safety of Leenus IV to Castellan Sefran and the rest of the Dark Wings. Leenus IV was an important planet to the Imperium as it provided the basic Chimera chassis to over one sixth of the Imperium, and loosing it would prove a massive blow to Imperial Guards' transports. Leenus IV wasn't a total forge world but neither was it a hive world, it was a kind of cross between both. It was similar to the war torn planet of Armageddon in it's environment, but was extremely hard to breath in the open desert and the atmosphere around Leenus IV had been turned into a total green house, and was often far to hot to venture outside without proper protection. However, due to the constant dangerous environment, many of the Desert Rats stationed here had become adapted to the harsh environment and could withstand the amazing heat of the desert without hindrance to ability, however, they were still unable to breath the air for long periods of time, so again, they were all kitted out with the same rubber respirators as the Steel Legionaries on Armageddon. But the mighty warriors of the Emperor would and could not be stopped by such trivial means, their power armour and genetically modified bodies being able to sustain the men in virtually any environment.  
  
Castellan Sefran, unlike most castellan's did not have a command squad accompany him, he preferred to be within the ranks of his fellow brothers, fighting amongst his trusted warriors instead of being with the other high ranking warriors of the company. He'd been castellan of the fighting force for only 15 years but had already won the respect of the entire 3rd crusade. His predecessor castellan Judas had been his Initiate back when he was but a mere Neophyte over 200 years ago. However, his great mentor had been killed doing what he did best 16 years ago against the traitorous legions of Chaos when he had gone one on one with a Greater Daemon without support. He had but up an amazing fight, almost completely killing the beast, but as he did, it had sucked him into the warp removing his presence from the material world forever. So now, it was Sefran's turn, to continue the great 10,000 year crusade of the Templars, and what better way to do so than to rid the Imperium and great cancerous Tyranids. 


	2. First Blood

The flyers were close now, and the frontmost of the abominations started diving, and as soon as the ones behind them reached the same point, they also began to dive. The moved totally in synchronized order, each one following the other. Once they had all begun their dive, they spread out, casting a 5km wide shadow in every direction, and from above, all that could be seen was the glinting red eyes of the Temaplars. The gargoyles were almost on top of them now, but yet they still did not fire. No one wavered, all standing completely still, bolters still raised. The Templars preferred to fight in close combat than a long range fire fights, only in a bloody melee could the mighty warriors of Adaptus Astartes be truly sure they had vanquished the Emperors enemies.  
  
Castellan Sefran continued to watch the sky, his helmet visor bleeping information at him, telling him to start firing now, but he ignored it. "No Pity, No Remorse, No Fear!, brothers FIRE!". At his command, every man fired their bolts, everyone of them hitting one of the beats. Explosions lit up the darkened sky, and the bolts pieced the gargoyles thick skin and exploded from within. They begun to fall, but as soon as one was killed, another five took it's place. However, ay one point, the beating wings of the Tyranids still moved, but the hoard of gargoyles did not, they were falling at such a rate now they didn't seem to be advancing at all. "Squad Rideal, go!", Sefran ordered.  
  
High above the clouds, Great Redwall, the Dark Wing's personal Thunderhawk, was slowly circling above their brethren. The exit hatch was opened, and the 10 strong Assault Marines squad ran out their flying war bird and began their decent. The squad leader, Veteran Sergeant Peno, was kitted out with 5 frag grenades as well as his hand flamers and trusty chainsword. Two of his men carried ancient plasma pistols, the rest of them with their holy bolt pistols. Their jump packs where fully fuelled and prayers had been made to the machine good to ensure their spirit slaves kept the packs functioning. Peno's visor displayed their current decent speed and air temperature up here, although he didn't need his visor, he could see the ice already forming on his armour. They were all to free fall until they were 200m from the clouds where they would engage their jets and fall through the gargoyles slowly, killing as many possible, and once they reached the ground, they would meet up with the rest of the company and continue the fight.  
  
Falling now at nearly 200km/ph, Peno and his squad all flipped their legs up and engaged the jump packs. Three seconds later they burst through the clouds, already firing their guns into the mass of aliens, and at such speed they sent them hurtling down towards the ground like missiles smashing into the sands dunes below. Now, their packs were slowing their fall, they were able to take more precise shots. As they reached the inside of the gargoyle pack. Peno and Brother Sweath engaged full power on their packs. As the other eight fell through the hoard, Peno and Sweath both cut their packs completely. Just a second before they entered the black mass, Peno threw a frag grenade up and Sweath threw a krak grenade. With their chainswords reeving, they slashed at as many as they could. They now could see the ground, and Sweath aimed upwards and fired two bolts expertly. As both men landed, heads facing down in a crouching position, the two bolts struck both grenades spreading shrapnel everywhere and incinerating the monsters who were close enough to the krak grenade. Squad Rideal had landed and now began jumping backwards towards their brothers, still firing their weapons. 


	3. Past Memories

"Brothers, advance!", Sefran bellowed through the entire companies comm-link. Every marine began running forward except the terminators and heavy bolter emplacements. The terminators walked forward as fast as possible but their thick, cumbersome ceramite armour, more bulky of that of power armour, slowed them so they could not keep up with their brothers. But it mattered not as the great warriors still fired their storm bolters and the assault cannon as they walked. The rest of the squad all ran towards the flyers and met their flying charge with their own. The gargoyles slashed, ripped and teared at the Templars, but had no such luck in even scratching their thick ceramite. The marines, with their chainswords, combat knives and even gun butts hit the tyranids hard, killing yet more. Castellan Sefran had made a space between him and his men as he did not want to risk hitting one of his own brothers with his halberd. Firing at point blank range, he ignited the promethieum and burned as many tyranids as he could, only a lucky few of them survived the flames, but Sefran finished them off with a few shots from his plasma pistol. Landing next to him, Sergant Peno also pumped the 'nids with his own flamer leaving a clear about 10 metres in front of him, not a single one of them had survived. "Your loosing your touch sir," Peno smiled behind his visor.  
  
"Bet I get more of these bastards than you do though," the Castellan smirked back. Sefran and Peno were closer than brothers of their force, they had fought in every battle for the past 120 years together and had developed a strong friendship. Their campaigne together all those years ago was Cripies II, where the piratical Dark Eldar were attacking Imperial settlements. The Cripies system was still in a fuedal state, but their populace was naturally physically strong and so was a great place for imperial guard recruits and amoung the exceptional few, new breathen of the Astartes. The Dark Wings had gone to put an end to the Dark Eldar because the 3rd crusade had a fortress on this world where recruits were trained and the fleets sometimes gathered if it need be. The campaign had only taken 3 days, as the pirates were relatively few in numbers, but were all highly skilled in many ways. When the Dark Wings had made planetfall, they deployed all around the outskirts of their camp so's they could completely wipe them out while forcing them closer together. Sefran was part of a tactical squad, the same squad as his Initiate, Judas, but he himself was now a full breathen. Peno was part of the deep striking assault squad, what he did best, but was not in charge of the squad. Sefran was taking out some dark eldar troops when Peno had jumped in behind him, killing a Wych as he landed, saving Sefran. They then battled back to back for 20 straight hours, taking on the enemy re-enforcements and cleansing the area of their exsistance.  
  
"Just like all times aye," Peno said quietly to Sefran directly slashing at gargoyles as he did. "Back to back again, always seems to be the same doesn't it.  
  
"It does, it does indeed." Sefran answered back. 


	4. Sudden Surprises

The fighting was fierce now, every marine was face to face with their enemy, dispatching them on at a time. Brother-Terminator Stade had been isolated from the rest of his squad and was now fighting it out alone. His power fist crackled as he swung it through the 'nids, hitting several of them, splashing their insides over his black armour. This was the job of a terminator, to dish out the Emperors justice in blows from his fist storm bolter. As he swung his bolter up to fire of some shots, he was caught off balance by several of the gargoyles flying smack into him, one of which killing itself from the impact. As he began to fall, all the beasts around him swarmed down, now all knowing he would be unable to stop them. Stade knew that his mighty armour would keep him from harm for a while, but from so many of them, he wasn't so sure. He prayed to the Emperor continually to protect him so he may continue to rid the Imperium of this cancer. His suits alerts began going off, his armour was loosing structure and power, and it would only be a short while until the spirits enslaved to it failed and he would be high vulnerable to his foe. He tried desperately to right himself, but his powerful exo-skeleton in his suit couldn't get power over so many gargoyles. Then his saviour arrived. Castellan Sefran's helmet had picked up Stades automated distress beacon and had acted instantly. He jumped into the frey, standing over Stade, while circling his halberd all around him, cutting enough down, it gave Stade the space to get back to his feet.  
  
"Thankyou Brother Castellan, may the Emperor continue to protect us," Stade shouted to Sefran over the comm.  
  
"That he will brother. Now do not give up fervour, and douse the flames that dare to threaten mankind," Sefran replied charasmatically.  
  
The battle was going well for the Dark Wings. As of yet they hadn't sustained any casualties. As one marine brung it's combat knife down through another gargoyle, he was struck down by super fast moving green blur, that instantly started corroding his suit, and within seconds, he was nothing but a few ashes on the floor. The men quickly looked up, and as they did, three huge Harridan's burst through gargoyle pack. They must've been 50 times bigger than a gargoyle, and 50 times stronger too. They were all carrying entire gargolye clusters on each of their 4 legs. Spitting their venom out again as they descended from they cannon like arms, it hurtled towards the ground bound marines. Fortunately, the Templars, with their enhanced senses and power armoured aided body, they skillfully dodged the shots. The marines were unsure as what to do. These gargantuan flyer were far too, large even for Space Marines to take down. Sefran thought quickly as to the best response to this new threat. He would need to think of an effective plan, and fast, or his entire unit could be wiped out. Still pounding away at the 'nids in front of him he suddenly thought of something.  
  
Talking to just one squad, Sefran began his orders, "Brother Terminators, converge with me and attack the largest of the Harridan!"  
  
The six men now together, they ran as fast as their terminator armour would allow towards the Harridan, ready to face it head on, to eradicate it from exsistance. 


	5. The Coup de Grace

The Harridans had already killed 6 marines in less than a minute of arriving, and Sefran was getting worried for his men. He was still running with his brother terminators towards the Harridan. As they charged, Sefran and the terminator sergant slashed their weapons at the gargoyles all around them. One of the Harridans which was higher up, spotted the black death bringers and their charge, and began to dive steeply towards them. It fired off a barrage of venom from what appeared to be one of its left arms, and it went hurtling towards the veteran marines. Fortunately, the tactical dreadnought armour of the terminators withstood the barrage and Sefran's religious, ancient armour just ignored it like tiny swamp flied, buzzing around it. However, although its venom had not done damage, the Harridan continued to dive towards them. Sefran knew that they would be overpowered if they had to fight two of them in close quarters.  
  
"Tactical Squad Ablam, on me and cover us!," Sefran ordered. The ten strong squad consolidated together and quickly caught up with Sefran. "Give us some covering fire on that flyer, blow it out the sky with bolts!" Sefran calmly said to the squad.  
  
They opened up and fired their bolts at it. Twenty self-propelled miniature missiles sped towards the Harridan at high velocity. As the bolts hit it's heavy armoured hide, they exploded taking chunks of the beast out here and there, but it did not slow it's decent, it mearly shook itself and continued diving. This is where the holy light of a lascannon would be an invaluable tool of war. Squad Ablam continued to fire, taking more and more chunks out of it, but the Harridan was far to tough for standard bolts. Suddenly, the two heavy bolter emplacements started firing again and a stream of high velocity hellfire bolts ripped through the Harridan, scourching it from the inside all the while. The beast let out a a tremendous screech of pain that would've almost certainly deafened a guardsman at this range, but the marines' helmets instantly compensated for the it and reduced it to tolerable levels. Even though the Harridan was in immensive pain, it wasn't down for the count yet. Sensing it may not be able to contine it's fight, the Harridan let off as much venom as it's body could muster. It fired one shot of the venom at the heavy bolter emplacements. The fortifications withstood the attack, but the bolter postioned there got hit by the venom also and instantly started corode. Another shot of venom found it's target on Brother-Terminator Stade. His armour was still in a weakened state, and the spirit enslaved to it knew this also, so to protect itself from torture in the warp, it threw up an energy field around Stade and stopped the venom mid flight. The diving Harridan had slowed now as its wings were punctured and it was loosing vital fluids, but regardless of that, it was close now to Sefran and his squad. While still running, Sefran, with his powerful exoskeleton pumped energy into his legs and he launched himself head on towards the Harridan. With halberd raised and pistol holstered, he slammed his power weapon straight through it's head an as he landed on it's head, Sefran ran along its back while dragging his halberd along, cutting its spine and wing connections clean in half.  
  
As it crashed to the ground, it snapped it's jaws and swiped it's claws at the terminators, but they skillfully dodged it's dying attempts. To finish it off, Sefran plunged his halberd into it's back and cut away a small hole. He dropped his weapon and coked his pistol and slammed his combi-flamer into the hole and pulled the trigger. It's entire insides was engulfed in flame, and before it could even screech, it's whole brain was fried. Pulling his pistol back out, he holstered it, picked up his halberd and continued his charge towards the grounded Harridan with the terminators. The marines around it were dodging it as much as they could whole firing bolts and slashing blades at the gargoyles, knowing all the while they must hold out until their ferocious leader arrived and distributed the coup de grace upon the second Harridan. Squad Rideal was working in close quarters together, ripping through countless gargoyles as they swarmed towards them. Peno could see his friend's charge and could also see the difficulty they were having moving through the dunes with so many 'nids around them. To save getting split up from his squad, he ordered all nine men in his squad to engage their jump jets and fly in a diagnol direction and hover just above Sefran and give them a good clear path. 


End file.
